An Authentic, Sometimes Gritty, and Always Hopeful Blog for All Who Live with Severe Physical Pain

Thursday, May 24, 2012

Depression and Pain - Part 2

"My Depression" water photo colorized, 2009

Depression! Me!

Yesterday I blogged about being adamantly
opposed to my doctor’s suggestion that I was depressed, despite the fact that I
had several symptoms that fit the description for depression quite well.
Regardless, I refused to accept it, on the grounds that my symptoms were the
result of horrific physical pain, rather than “a condition of mental
disturbance” as “Dictionary.com” defines it.

Depression,
did not, and still does not fit well. There
needs to be a different classification of depression or depression-like
symptoms that arise from severe pain. It remains an ongoing concern within the pain community which struggles to receive good care, and is one of the reasons that the recently disbanded “American Pain Foundation”
(which existed to advocate for pain initiatives at the state and federal level) note on their now defunct website when referring to their demise, "...the current climate towards improving the
plight of
people with pain in the US continues to be precarious and hostile.”

I have helped dozens of people get good
care.

Here are 4 things everyone should do at the very least:

1. 1 - See
yourself the “customer” who is seeking the best care possible, rather than a “patient”
who behaves passively, and is grateful for whatever tiny bit of time or measley
morsel of help he can receive from doctors. (But always, always treat others
the way you want to be treated--with respect and integrity!)

2. 2 - Become
knowledgeable about your illness, research and treatment options.

3. 3 - Prepare
for appointments--write down your questions; ask the doctor questions about
what he/she is writing down and for summaries of his/her findings and treatment
suggestions. (For example, I learned, by asking my doctors, how they cannot prescribe any medication
without a diagnosis stipulated in your record to back it up.)

4 - 4 - Keep
your own records to manage your care.

(sorry, don't know why I can't get this box to look good! )

I would have liked to have fought the
depression label,

but my body didn’t cooperate.

More about that further down.

Depression
as “sin”. Undeniably, social stigmas against people who
are depressed abound. For
example, just a few days ago, Mark Dayton, a Minnesota gubernatorial candidate,
revealed that he has been dealing with depression throughout his adult
life. As I write this, political
analysts are forecasting the end of his political campaign. We seem to think there is something inherently
“weak” or “unreliable” about a person who has depression. And, although we might not even realize it,
we believe that people with depression should be able to “do something” about
it.

Church folks tend to reflect this same stigma--we
just use different words. In churches, it seems our prevailing attitudes have been that depression is "sin" that can be overcome through intentionally pursuing God. Having heard many prayers for people who have depression, they usually sound very much like this:

“We pray that
(name’s) downcast spirit will

seek the joy of the
Lord to be his/her strength.”

Just like outside the Church, Christians seem to believe the person who is depressed should
be able to “do something” about it--this time “seeking the joy of the Lord”. Before I was faced with my own depression, I believed this too, even though it is not what the bible teaches.

Okay, back to me…

I went along living out my life with pain and
the varied depression-like symptoms, for many more months after refusing my
doctor’s depression diagnosis. Then
something happened…like it usually does.

I began to wake up feeling very weighted down--like my feet were encased in cement blocks, and as though someone had draped a
lead blanket over my chest.--like the ones they lay on top of you at the dentist office when
you get an x-ray. As the day progressed,
I would gradually feel better, yet, each morning the heaviness reappeared. I hoped it would get better on its own, so I didn't tell anyone about it...

...until God made me deal with it after a few weeks. A good friend I'll call "Meg" brought over our favorite Panera salads
for lunch, and promptly told me that I looked terrible. (It’s
good to have friends who love you enough to be real--I mean that.) Being with her released something inside of
me and soon I was blubbering all over my chicken salad about the weighted down
feeling and much more--how I felt I was missing out on life, and how ashamed I
felt about the apparent weakness of my faith when God was so good to me, how pain had somehow changed the chemical functioning of my brain, etc… Meg
allowed me my tears, before she said in her no-nonsense kind of way,

“You can call this whatever might make you feel more comfortable, Judi, but the truth
is, you have depression. No doubt about
it. Yes, pain has caused it, but, that doesn’t change the fact. You have tried to make it something else…a
new form of depression, or a faith issue. Neither is relevant. What is, is that you've got it and it must be treated."

You know how it is when the right words
spoken at the right time seem to sweep away all your arguments and doubts? That’s what Meg’s words did for me.

7 comments:

Judi, you are writing about the subject no one in the church wants to talk about. I applaud you for that.

During my 7 year wilderness, my feet were stuck in cement. Literally. The first 2-3 years I couldn't get off the couch. I finally did. Finally started to come out of it and wham! The devil hit me with another shock that knocked me right back to the couch.

Judi-Now this photo of your "reaction to calling the doctor"-yep, that one is a keeper! WOW-God loves you my dear!Your friend showed up and God gave her the words to help you at that precise moment!

I have seen the "church" reaction to people going through tough times and hearing the same comments-being stunned at times as to the vicious manner in which people seemed to think it was Okay to speak that way about another human being.

As Diane said, it is a taboo subject that nobody wants to talk about and I am so honored to hear this from you!What a journey you have been on and only God and you know all the details.

I am honored-truly HONORED to know you Judi! You inspire me and give me courage to push ahead. I can't wait to read "the rest of the story!"

Judi I am going to use some of your post the next time I speak to women. Every time I am in a group this subject comes up and ALWAYS there will be many who eyes tell me they do not talk about "their depression" for fear of judgement. Thank you for your reserch...your willingness to like Diane said write so fresh on this issue. It cripples and affect our bodies and render us useless unless we come to term that our emotions and mind was also affected in the fall along with our bodies. Bless you, bless you, bless you Judi...waiting too for part 3.